Development of A Mechanical Setup With Sensors to Determine Interfacial Phenomena Between Supersonic Steam Jet and Water

Abstract A specially configured mechanical setup with sensors which was designed to record minimal and increased fluctuations in temperature as evidence of Kelvin–Helmholtz (KH) instabilities by means of LM35 sensors and data acquisition. The generation and spread of KH instabilities in steam and water was accomplished first time by following temperature profiles around the steam’s jet interface with the surrounding water. The supersonic steam was driven into the water in a vessel by means of a specially designed supersonic nozzle at pressure changing from 1.5 to 3.0 bars. Whereas, the temperature of the water in the cylindrical column varied from 30 o C to 60 o C with a change of 5 o C each time when the measurements were performed. The acquisition setup was able to record temperatures across the steam jet in the vessel at a rate of 1 ms, and it could also provide the temperature readings within the vessel. Axial and radial temperature profiles being obtained from 6 temperature sensors positioned along the steam jet, revealed the instabilities being occurred across the interface among the steam and the water, the instabilities spread along the axis towards the vessel wall. However, these instabilities were influenced considerably due to the variation in water temperature in the column, along with change in steam’s pressure. Also, instabilities were affected as well due to the change in viscosity of water owing to change in its temperature.